Whether human or natural processes affect the coastline in Dawlish

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Introduction

GCSE GEOGRAPHY COURSEWORK By Nick Simm of 11I Dawlish Warren is a small town very near Dawlish. The main aim of my enquiry is to find out whether human or natural processes affect the coastline and in what circumstances, to discover this information I will perform tests in three different locations, known as location A which is the Langstone Rock, location B which is the amusements or caf� and location C is the spit. I have decided to write a section about sea defences on the Dawlish Warren because I think this is an important factor to consider while global warming is concerned because Increasing sea levels could mean flooding, this means sea defences are required. Here is a table I wrote up so you can see some of the things I will talk about in my Introduction: (fig 1.0) Tourism Wind direction Nature reserve Fetch Golf course Constructive waves SSSI - Site of special scientific interest. Destructive waves Beach/sea defences Erosion processes Transportation Deposition On the next page there is a map of Dawlish Warren so you can get an idea of its surroundings. MAP OF DAWLISH WARREN: (fig 1.1) Below are various sea defences I discovered on the internet and in Geography class. Sea Defences The sea wall The sea wall is usually made out of concrete or stone and reflects waves and withstands a wave breaking on it. Costing �6,000 per metre. Well-angled beach The best sea defence ever is a well shaped beach It will adjust and absorb wave energy and the best thing of all is that it costs nothing, the only downfall is that there could be erosion during storms and that will need to be looked out for. Beach nourishment It will replace sand lost by erosion each year and it costs �3 per cubic metre. Offshore breakwater Offshore breakwater stops waves going offshore it costs roughly �5,000 per metre. Rock armour (rip rap) Built in 1997, many repairs since large interlocking boulders, �3500 per metre. ...read more.

Middle

FEATURE SCORE Water 2 - cloudy water Sand 2 - Dirty Sand Cliffs 2 - Some unstable Bathing 2 - Rocks mud makes bathing difficult and/or unpleasant Noise 3 - Peaceful and un-crowded Area for games 2 - Some space for games. View 2 - Reasonable Seaweed 3 - No seaweed Natural interest 3 - Much Wind shelter 3 - Sheltered from the wind Litter 2 - Some litter The table above shows that the beach has a total score of 26. This is quite good as on no occasion does it score less than 1. The natural interest feature was so high because it is a fairly enclosed area which means lots of rock pools and other natural features. The crowds tend to head for the huge wide beaches where the sand is white and the sea clear, with no rocks in it. This makes this area quite peaceful and un-crowded. Surprisingly there was not much sea-weed at all in the area. I would have thought there would be a lot more because of the rock pools and other natural features. There is some litter which spoiled the location a little bit, but unfortunately all beaches will have some litter on because of the lack of care from some people who go to the beaches, usually tourists. The area is very sheltered from the wind because of the high cliffs that stop large amounts of wind from gusting through; unlike the larger beaches. But because of the fact that it is fairly enclosed the view suffers considerably. You won't have much of a range of site. Unfortunately some of the cliffs were particularly dangerous and looked on the verge of possible collapse, this could be quite dangerous and was a major downfall to the beach. The sand was quite dirty, well not really dirty it was muddier sand instead of clear white sand, which is another reason why this beach was less popular. ...read more.

Conclusion

and an area of public interest. It is a good idea because it provides and area for wildlife and maintains the biodiversity. My original aim was to find out whether human or natural processes affect the coastline and in what circumstances, I think this aim was easily achieved and now I think I know just about everything about Dawlish Warren! The main human influences were people walking on and around the beach and littering. The main physical features were: * The weather * The sea * The moon * The rocks I believe that the moon influences the shape of the coastline due to its gravitational pull on the waves. The sea also influences the way the rocks are shaped at Langstone Rock because it smashes sand and pebbles against it. This form of erosion is called Wave Pounding. The rocks are the main contributors in Wave Pounding as they are what smash in to the Rock making arches and sea caves. The weather is used to control wave speeds thus speeding up the Wave Pounding process. I think on the whole most of my fieldwork techniques went well, although on the day we didn't have time to complete the gruelling beach profile. All our surveys were particularly successful and we achieved very reliable results. My Long Shore Drift measurements didn't go according to plan, simply because we didn't have enough floating materials, like tangerines etc. We could have improved via bringing more tangerines. Our conclusions were limited because we have no beach profile, which could have been very useful for proving the way the beach is sloped. If I went back there at a later date I may have the chance to improve my enquiry, but it is unlikely. I am quite pleased with the fact that I managed to collect so much data and present it in a number of different ways and be able to talk about my results, I think I achieved my main aim, which was to 'find out whether human or natural processes affect the coastline and in what circumstances'. ...read more.

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